run in
by traversing
Summary: oh look, Annabeth's the mysterious Doctor figure, who meets the mundane Percy.
1. stocking shelves

She watches people, watches planets, and eventually she even watches the universe, because after all, someone has to.

But not everything is watched equally; obviously, she'll turn her gaze to those who stand out the most, those who are exceptional.

Oddly enough though, what she finds herself watching most is this totally ordinary boy–man, perhaps, she's never been to good with ages, especially her own–who is attempting to go about his daily life and yet can't seem to stock the shelves at the walmart he works in without causing something to crash and tumble.

She's leaning against one of the metal racks–this one's layered with some sort of rainbow'd candy that makes her wonder if there's some sort of human holiday she's forgotten. Her gaze never wavers from him, aside from the short glance at a shopper who nearly tripped a few feet way from her.

"Need some help?" She offers, surprising herself (but really, why would she be surprised? oh yes, perhaps because it's been years–).

His head snaps over to her, and she's got a clear (well, at least for her) view of his name tag. _Percy_.

He shakes his head a little. "Nah, I've got it."

Percy then proceeds to knock over a brightly colored box of what appears to be cookies, which she easily catches and tosses back to him.

"Yeah, you're doing just fine. Now, tell me, how crushed do you think the kid's gonna be when he finds the crumbled Oreos?" She teases, and again she's surprised at how easy this is for her (yet hard all at the same time).

"The orange filled suck anyways." He shoots back, though with the smallest hint of a smile.

She laughs. "Well noted."

Then, spotting the crate next to him, stuffed to the almost brim with junk food, she impulsively reaches out and passes the next item to him to shelve.

Percy takes it, albeit reluctantly, rolling his eyes. "I could get fired, ya know."

"And a giant-ass meteor could come and destroy us all, ya know," she replies (even though she's one hundred percent certain in the asteroid part– she'd have to divert Karasuv i-9 away from this planet's path in a couple days time).

He doesn't respond, instead quietly accepting whatever she reaches up to him for, and they soon fall into a near perfect groove (well, perfect unless you count the fact that he asked her name and she wasn't sure what to tell him, which ended up with her promptly ignoring him).

Unfortunately, the serenity doesn't last for long when she remembers why she's here, not to interact with some mundane kid but to quickly gather some supplies. (and by supplies she means a frozen pizza with extra olives along with a book to read while her ship readjusts her coordinates) and high tail it to the New York based UNIT for some quality "yelling at the silly humans for mucking everything up again" time.

She bades goodbye, but as she turns to leave, Percy rests a hand on her arm, mumbling when asking if she would maybe stay around.

She ends up not outright refusing, instead giving a "maybe sometime" for an answer.

Maybe sometime she _will _stick around (the maybe wasn't even needed, she knows she'll come back) and right now she has bigger fish to fry.


	2. fruit stealer

She goes back to the store, that huge store with nearly everything a twenty first century human might want or need (as long as they didn't travel through the rest of the cosmos–their expanded palette would be insatiable in any modern establishment).

She tries to land her ship nearly two weeks later, but she's always been a rubbish driver, so when she goes into the store and runs into the boy again–Percy–who is running the cash register, his hair is remarkably longer and he looks like he maybe grew a few inches (in any matter, he seems to be finally taller than her).

If he remembers her, he doesn't say anything, but she does notice a slight glimmer in his eyes when she hands him a bundle of bananas and smiles at him.

She bites her lip, apprehensive to speak (because if she opens her mouth she might ask him to come with her, and she promises herself not to invite anyone else along; they always leave her in the end).

Fortunately, she doesn't have to start anything because Percy grins at her and asks if she'd watched the game last night.

"It depends," she says. "What's today?"

He tells her it's Saturday (she's always been a fan of Earth Saturdays) and she hesitates before asking the year.

He laughs. "God, how much you'd drink last night?"

She furrows her eyebrows, it takes her a minute (it's been so long since she'd really talked to someone and felt–no, nothing was felt, it'd just been awhile since she'd talked to someone).

"A bit," she answers.

Percy grins, and really he has a very nice smile, she's not quite sure why she hadn't picked up on it before. "It's 2014, January."

She lets out a little, "Oh."

His gaze moves to his register, and he punches in some keys when she notices something small and swift in her peripheral. Her ears practically perk up, and she's turning her head to see what it was.

"Did you see that?" she says, then mutters to herself, "Of course you didn't, shoddy human senses."

"What?" Percy asks, and he's genuinely confused–as he should be, nothing out of the ordinary for him, really, aside from a blonde girl who is so hungover she can't remember the year.

Her eyes dart around the store, trying to find the thing again, she knows it shouldn't be here, whatever it is, and she grabs her plastic grocery sack before sprinting out of the lines.

She's picking up some sort of noise, she isn't sure what it is. She can also barely hear Percy's cries of protest–oh, she forgot to pay. It wouldn't be the first time.

She can really hear it now, a faint and uneven clicking, as she turns a corner, not even realizing (nor caring to be quite frank) that she's heading into some stock room.

She's just gotten inside the doors when she feels a hand on her arm, and from instinct she flips her assailant onto their back and presses her knee against their chest, her arm not carrying her fruit (she needs her fruit) against their neck.

She doesn't even realize it's Percy until he cusses.

"What the hell are you doing?" she angry-whispers, not yet getting off him.

He grunts. "You can't take the food without paying."

"This is bigger than food."

"And yet you're still holding onto the bag."

She curses, annoyed with him already (and to think she thought he was cute), but is frozen by a small scuttle coming from her right side.

Immediately she pulls him into a huddle, hides behind a tower of boxed macaroni.

"What is–" he begins, and she promptly covers his mouth with her hand.

She doesn't answer him right away, first making sure it hasn't found them yet. She has an inkling on what the thing is, but she can't be sure. "Shut the hell up if you want to live."

She removes her fingers from his lips when she's certain that he'll stay quiet, but he proves her wrong by asking what her name is.

"Why should I tell you?" She shoots back, she really doesn't like telling people her name, but since it's kind of her fault he's in this mess (not really) she just sighs now. "Annabeth."

"Percy," he replies, and sticks out his hand.

She motions for him to stay back as she moves forward, shuffling soundlessly towards the unknown creature that she knows is in here.


End file.
